The MTA property is assessed at $5.1 million. MTA Executive Director-Treasurer Ann Clarke declined to comment. Frank Petz and Robert Borden in the Capital Markets Group at Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL) who are handling the sale, declined comment.

Harold Brown, the founder of The Hamilton Co. and owner of more than 5,200 apartments and nearly two million square feet of commercial property in Greater Boston, said the MTA building would work better if converted to apartments. Brown said the building could fetch as much as $8 million in a sale.

“Beacon Hill is hot,” he said. “It would make sense to convert the offices to housing similar to what we did on Winter Street in Downtown Crossing.”

Earlier this year, Brown completed an $8.5 million transformation of the 12-story, 50,000-square-foot office building at 8 Winter St. into 48 apartments.